This is a fulacht fia, a type of ancient outdoor cooking place found in enormous numbers across Ireland, typically identified by a mound of heat-shattered, burnt stone left behind after repeated use. The method generally involved heating stones in a fire and dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring it to a boil, making these sites among the earliest evidence of organised food preparation in the Irish landscape.

The site at Carrigdarrery sits on the northern side of a stream, a detail that is less incidental than it sounds. Fulachta fiadh are almost always found near water, which was essential to the whole process. A 1943 Ordnance Survey six-inch map recorded two such sites in this immediate area, and this is one of them, its paired companion lying nearby. The burnt material that remains visible around the tree roots is likely the dispersed remnant of the characteristic mound, disturbed over time by forestry planting and the slow movement of root growth through the ground.